Monday, May 27, 2013

I vivdly remember buying this record in 1986. I use to go down town to the record shop every Saturday regardless of the fact that I may or may not be able to afford to step back out the door with a dope slice of wax under my arm. This trip I had £6.50 in my pocket which was enough for one US import 12" single and my bus fare of course which was all of 2p each way; Sheffield at that time had the cheapest bus tariff in the whole country as it was subsidised and run by the council but, alas, not any more. Anyway, I always met one of my mates down there - we never traveled on the bus together as he lived in another part of town so we usually met outside or inside, whatever - and on this particular occasion he was stood outside looking up and down the High Street and looking a little agitated. When he saw me across the street he was waving his arms in the air me as if he wanted me to hurry up. 'They've got the Skinny Boys in' he said and ran off in front of me back down the stairs to the counter in the left hand corner where the import bloke was. I asked for the box and it was sitting right at the front and I just picked it without looking at the others, paid for it and we went for the bus home. It was still sealed too which was fairly rare back then as loads of kids used to visit the shop and asked for records to be played even though they had no intention of making a purchase. I did the same, often. We went back to his house and played it at a pretty low volume as he was, shall we say 'respectful' of his parents and I have to tell you I was overjoyed as I'd not heard it before but he had. I still don't know even now where he heard all these records before I did but he was always well informed even though he never bought a record in his life. This was the third US import 12" single I ever bought and I still think it's def today. I still have it don't I?

Friday, May 17, 2013

Tough beats and def scratchin' make the perfect record in my opinion. Mixmaster Gee was another Cutmaster DC too; DJ, MC, producer and he was pretty good at all of those things. A one man hip hop band. Stestasonic rolled in to one. I think this might have been on a Masterscratch tape back in the day as I'm pretty sure JP never played it and no one I knew of had it either. 2 years it took me to cop this one thanks to good ol' Beat Street Records once again and it still sounds fresh today.